This invention relates to the direct connection of ancillary equipment such as facsimile transceivers to the telephone network.
In many instances, it is necessary for various types of ancillary equipment including data terminals and facsimile transceivers to be directly connected to the switched telephone network, as contrasted with acoustic coupling, in order to satisfy certain wideband communication channel and operator convenience requirements.
Typically, such direct connection is accomplished by a plug and jack connection to the telephone network with suitable protective circuitry interposed between the ancillary equipment and the telephone network as, for example, required by the FCC in connection with the FCC equipment registration program. However, in many instances, a jack is not available and the only available form of connection to the network is through a telephone handset which is hardwired to the network. Under such circumstances, users of the telephone network have been forced to acoustically couple the ancillary equipment to the network through the telephone handset which may be undesirable for the reasons stated above.